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Dear Editor,

On Sept. 25, your paper printed a letter “In support of Berry” written by a person from Cumberland County. The letter has a few things that need to be addressed. First, I need to say I have worked with Trudy Berry with the Lunenburg Chamber and I consider her a fine person and a friend.

The letter in question stated “I’ve never met anyone who can tell me what he’s done” in reference to Tommy Wright. Glad to meet you because I am that person. When you look at legislation that has been introduced by Delegate Roslyn Tyler and Tommy Wright over the same period of time Delegate Wright has about twice as much legislation as Delegate Tyler. Delegate Wright has been a true supporter of police and sheriff’s department across the state and he has worked for facial responsibility in government. The letter stated that “He voted to prevent health coverage for some of us.” Yes. He did vote for most of us not to pay higher taxes while a few of us got free health care at our expense.

The writer states “we still have problems with lack of internet or phone coverage.’ I agree with this. Because we are not a socialist country, we count on business to provide us with this kind of service. The problem is that is not the House of Delegates job. It is the job of Gov. Northam to work with business to provide these services. Our Governor does have a 10-year plan to meet these needs. Twice in the last month I have met with his representatives and expressed my concern that this is too slow. The writer also says, “we still struggle to provide 21st century education for our kids.” Again, I agree— but again in Virginia it is the Governor who writes the budget and the counties have to help with additional funds. Under Virginia law a Governor can only serve one term. I hope the next Governor will bring the change the writer is talking about.

Finally, the writer states, “We have the power to replace our leaders with our votes, instead of whining.” I fully agree, but we also have the power to re-elect people who are doing a good job for us and Tommy Wright is one who is doing a great job. Although Trudy Berry is a fine person, I am voting to re-elect Tommy Wright as a thank you for the job he has done in the past for Southside Virginia.

Mike Hankins

Lunenburg